If I were to buy Mac or any big ticket electronics, I would just buy with Amex via cash back portal (UR/United/SW/AA etc) and get the additional warranty. I dealt with other card warranty process before and couldn't be happier with AMEX.

You can get the points cheaper at convenience stores, since you get 2x but the GCs cost $4.95 for $500, instead of $5.95+ for $200.

Right... but the problem is then converting the MR points. I'll get a better value converting URs at 1 point per penny. Don't believe I can do that with MRs.

I'm talking about using your Ink cards, they give 2x at gas stations for up to $50k / year.

True... I just need to find the gas stations around here that will allow me to make those purchases. I've had push back in the past. Definitely a better deal though. Could get a $1000 laptop for just under $500... not counting other portal bonuses, etc.

Can we buy Apple Store gift card @ Bestbuy and use the gift cards for Iphone/Ipad purchase @ Apple online store?

I've never seen an Apple Store gift card at Best Buy.

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/searchpa...pple+gift+card

Is the last item $100 Apple Store gift card? I know you can't use Itunes gift card to purchase Apple devices but not sure about Apple Store gift card.

Those are "App Store" not "Apple Store." The App store is the same as the iTunes store - same account and everything. It's just for buying MacOS apps instead of music or iOS apps.

Gotcha. Thanks for clarification. I guess I can only get 2x points via UR Mall now.

BigCrumbs increased for MacMall
 

Just noticed that BigCrumbs is at 3.76% for MacMall (was 2.8% yesterday).

Got screwed x2 on Black Friday working the points angle.

Best example is an Air for my wife. $999 with a $150 Apple Gift Card. So I went through United MileagePlus shopping to pick up the bonus at $1000 figuring I'd add a $1 filler somewhere.

But Apple reports the purchase as $849. So net of the Gift Card.

I suppose using the Gift Card should therefore result in getting points. Still, I was paying $999 and the GC was free, in my mind.

And now it's all gone. I had some on AA and some on UA (both Cartera) and they're both gone.

Maybe they're fixing this?

I used my SPG Amex through the United Rewards Mall to buy my Macbook pro on Black Friday and the points were credited to my account within just a few days. I received 2x miles for the dollar amount of the macbook minus the $150 gift card

Just another note on Discover: not only do you get the 5% cash back from their portal, but the Discover It's extended warrantee is compatible with AppleCare. So if you buy a (refurb!) machine from Apple, and buy AppleCare for that machine, then you get 5% cash back on the machine, 5% cash back on the AppleCare, and then Discover extends the warrantee by an extra year, to four years.

This is in contrast to the standard Visa warrantee extension on Visa Signature cards, and some other Visa cards, which explicitly disallows extending warrantees that have already been extended by purchasing a package from the manufacturer.

AmEx's terms are less clear, and I think they would extend the warrantee. I don't have a MasterCard so I don't know about them.